(Photo submitted by Deb Lewis Erwin. Her father, Gordon Lewis, is standing at far left in the color guard. Other color guard members, left to right: Ira Cox, Ralph Jordan, and Lester Kinlaw.)
The Legionnaire in the center of the three seated at right is Ernest R. Morgan. He was the general contractor who built the National Bank of Commerce building in 1956 (demolished for the Conference Center), a city councilman, an Army colonel in World War II, and a Gastonia civic leader. He gave the dedicatory speech for the presentation of the hospital to the county. (Information furnished by his son-in-law, Bill Beam.)